Tori's Review: Sins of the Angels by Linda Poitevin

Paperback: 336 pages
Price: $7.99
ISBN: 978-0441020911 
Released: September 27, 2011
Publisher: Penguin 
Author's Website: Linda Poitevin
Buy it: Amazon
Obtained: Publisher 
Genre: Urban Fantasy 
Series: Grigori Legacy 
Book Order:
1. Sins of the Angels 

A detective with a secret lineage. An undercover Hunter with a bullet-proof soul. And a world made to pay for the sins of an angel…

Homicide detective Alexandra Jarvis answers to no one. Especially not to the new partner assigned to her in the middle of a gruesome serial killer case—a partner who is obstructive, irritatingly magnetic, and arrogant as hell.

Aramael is a Power—a hunter of the Fallen Angels. A millennium ago, he sentenced his own brother to eternal exile for crimes against humanity. Now his brother is back and wreaking murderous havoc in the mortal realm. To find him, Aramael must play second to a human police officer who wants nothing to do with him and whose very bloodline threatens both his mission and his soul.

Now, faced with a fallen angel hell-bent on triggering the apocalypse, Alex and Aramael have no choice but to join forces, because only together can they stop the end of days.

My Rating: 

My Opinion:
An engaging, unique read. The beginning had me hooked, the middle had a slight lull (where it felt like characters were running in circles), but the mysterious ending totally had me interested again.

The strongest point for this book--and what ultimately kept me going--was the plot. Like many, I have grown tired of angels/fallen angels, but that did not matter in SINS OF THE ANGELS. I loved the new world and story Linda weaved together, and it was quite fun attempting to figure out what purpose each character's caste served.

Characterization was good too, though there were a few moments where a character felt flat for me. No deal breaker, though. For the most part, I felt the emotional impact for a lot of scenes. I also felt a chill or two, and my blood ran cold at one point in particular... for those of you who have read this title, it was the bloodbath scene. Brutal imagery, definitely creepy, and definitely well done.

SINS OF THE ANGELS has an excellent thriller element to it. I absolutely LOVED the surprises in this book. Caim could be one creepy bastard at times, and it was absolutely chilling when I pictured him in certain scenes--particularly one near the end where he just sort of appears out of nowhere. I don't usually get freaked out, but I did then!

A couple of complaints include:

A lot of sentence fragments. It's more of a style Linda seemed to have adopted, and when not used constantly, is a great way for an author to emphasize a point. After reading numerous pages laden with these fragments, however, I grew somewhat tired of it. This may irk some readers.

I would have loved more development of the romantic relationship because we essentially went from the two being wary/seemingly disliking each other to suddenly being unable to part. The shift felt abrupt--almost like a switch was turned on and the two were in love. I think that this part was the biggest disappointment in the book for me. I wanted so desperately to feel the passion shared, but instead, I felt more of their initial ambivalence instead.

There seemed to be potential for a love triangle; I sincerely hope this is not the case.

Overall, a great start to what sounds like an awesome paranormal series. So long as there are no love triangles, and the romance is developed a bit further (assuming the idea of soulmates is emphasized in future books), I think I will be a fan for a long, long time. Hell, even if there is a love triangle, I will definitely be reading future installments.